Walked out to the creek at low tide. Very quite, overcast and calm. Any sign of dimple's or raining bait would produce a hit though this occurred infrequently. Fish were slurping as opposed to breaking. Glare made sighting fish difficult. Managed a schoolie and hooked up with two nice fish, landing one of 29 -30". Tan/chartruse blend deep eel worked when fish were present as hit always happened when the signs were present. A lot of blind casting did nothing aside from an early schoolie which suggests to me there was not a lot of fish around.

FishHawk

06-30-2003, 05:57 AM

Looks like your tan fly theory has paid off. Add a pinch of pink in the mix, curious if it will work. Talked to a guide at the Newport show, Capt.Jim Ellis who fishes the Bayside and said not to use any flash on the flies or if you do very sparse. He ties most of his Bayside patterns in tan. FishHawk

striblue

06-30-2003, 10:08 AM

Fred..I am in Chatham now and can meet you over there if you are going..Let me know and I can get there tomorrow early. PM me or Call. If you can't get though then just PM me.

juro

06-30-2003, 10:46 AM

The tan deep eel came from observation of buried sand eels. At any given time there are both buried and free-swimming eels in an area. Those fish who are foraging and rooting, often with pink lips, are more prone to seeing and eating tan colored eels like the little lightning bolts you see squirming from one spot and digging quickly into another. When a tide change holes-up a shoal of sand eels into a bowl or trench, the free-swimmers are going to be green-backed and a bit too shiny for their own good, so I match the color accordingly there. Both of these situations can occur on the same day, within a short stroll from each other.

Fred - I know what you mean for sure; I have enjoyed many days sight fishing by disturbance on the Brewster flats. In fact my earliest experiences with sight fishing were to waiving tails and too-tall fins, not to visible pods and these were on the bayside flats. When I had small kids it was tough to get away mid-day when I could sight fish easily so it was all dawn sorties and whenever I could escape. Sometimes high tide, sometimes low, the timing was not governed by my preferences but by availability instead. I noticed that the same deep trenches that funnelled water toward shore on the low/flood were the spots where fish could be spotted tailing and foraging on a day when I arrived at low light of dawn on a flat calm day with a light fog over the water and not a soul for miles or so it seemed. Lesson learned: if you arrive during the flood, look for fish to move into these channels, but if you arrive at high look for fish to be foraging at the shoals / flats / deltas formed at the ends of them. Works well for me as an indirect sight fishing method without ambient light.

jfbasser

06-30-2003, 11:53 AM

I am going to close my eyes and feel for soft sand with my feet and make off I am fishing at night. That way I won't know how many came by that wouldn't eat:(